President's Message: December 2022

Time flies, and it is soon time to say goodbye to 2022. The year has been very hard for the world to face the unsettling pandemic and the post-epidemic impact, which has reduced the actual exchange of visits between organizations and necessitated the use of virtual meetings. The AAPME Awards was successfully completed as scheduled under Damian’s continuous leadership. Although the winners were unable to attend the awards ceremony, we look forward to meeting again at the Tokyo Congress in 2023.

In addition, due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, and following COP 27 and G20, countries around the world are particularly alarmed about the destruction of environmental, ecological, and cultural landscapes brought about by the war, and as landscape professionals, we do have a responsibility to raise and expand the issue of net zero emissions and climate change as the highest standard of our professional practice, and to make more active adjustments in conjunction with landscape architecture education. EAA Chair Alessandro Martinelli is actively working with the PPP and CCWG chairs on how to integrate and strengthen our expertise and technology in response to climate change.

A special thanks to AILA for completing the three volumes of the Climate Positive Design Roadmap, which members are welcome to download.

ASLA also announced its "2022-2025 Climate Action Plan" at the November conference. The ASLA also hopes that each country and region can establish its own roadmap and guideline according to its geographic, climatic, and socio-economic characteristics, and that it can improve its public policy, environmental governance, practice, and education system in response to the landscape.

We would like to thank all the Exco Member WG Chairs and all the members for their efforts and support during 2022. I wish you all an early Christmas and Happy New Year!

Regards,